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Steelers roster will look a lot different next season

Submitted by 60 Max Power O Staff on January 21, 2013 - 10:33am

Pittsburgh Steelers GM Kevin Colbert says they're will be some major roster changes in the offseason after going a disappointing 8-8.

"When you're 12-4 and a playoff team, sometimes you get mesmerized by your success and you get a little reluctant to change," Colbert said via Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, referring to the teams' record in 2010 and 2011.

"If we don't change a roster that produced 8-8, we'd be silly to expect a better result because it's the same group of guys. ... I guess it's easier to make decisions to change when you're 8-8 than when you're 12-4."

Colbert and the team are still evaluating players and salary cap considerations before making any decisions, but many free agents may not be offered contracts and some veterans could be released. The salary cap will be approximately $121 million and the Steelers are currently about $10 million over.

With free agency set to begin March 12th, Colbert added "We won't know what an individual player will cost until he gets out there... going into this thing, we're not married to anybody." Translation: say goodbye to most, if not all pending free agents, possibly including Mike Wallace, Max Starks, Keenan Lewis, Rashard Mendenhall and Casey Hampton.

To Colbert, applying the franchise tag on one of them is "doubtful."

"In my mind, when you're 8-8, I don't think you had too many franchise players."